


An Analysis of Death in Supernatural (as it pertains to writing as an artform and story function and the ******* finale)

by Trisscar368 (Dragonwithatale)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, Meta, Meta Essay, Non Fiction, So this is all a discussion of death on the show and that includes major character deaths, but nobody actually dies inside of a story so tagging mcd feels weird, so really a very cheerful essay, there is also discussion of suicidal themes in the show and depression as it shows up in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28831941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonwithatale/pseuds/Trisscar368
Summary: What it says on the tin - looking at character deaths for Major characters, some minor characters, how death functions in writing and what the fuck was up with the finale.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	An Analysis of Death in Supernatural (as it pertains to writing as an artform and story function and the ******* finale)

In the beginning there was death. Fridging, to be precise. Mary Winchester burns on a ceiling to set a plot in motion, and she mostly functions as backstory. Her death is the impetus for what began our protagonists’ quest, but it’s 20 years in the past. Jessica Moore, on the other hand, dies at the end of the Pilot and drives Sam’s emotional arc for the first season. These two deaths, horrible tropeage that they are, both serve a clear narrative function and have a clear emotional impact on the characters, which we’re allowed to see across multiple seasons.

Sadly, as deaths go on this show, these are fairly well written.

Season one continues on its way with the characters overshadowed by the question of their own death - they’re hunters, they’re trained, but the world is getting more dangerous and they’re suddenly on their own. The audience believes that they’re in danger at multiple points in the first season, including Sam hunting down a faith healer in 1x12 to save Dean’s life. This vulnerability will last into the second season, but it starts diminishing in replacement of the horror of being the one who survives.

The end of season 1 starts a familiar tradition for this show - the end of season massacre. A large number of John’s allies, who are people that Sam and Dean grew up knowing and interacting with, are killed, which functionally ups the narrative stakes - the antagonist was already dangerous, but this drives it home for the audience. The threat then shifts to “will John die at Azazel’s hand”, and “will Dean survive/will Sam have to kill his father”, and we wrap up with “did anyone survive the car crash?”

2x01 is an entire episode questioning if Dean will die, while watching John preparing his own suicide-by-demon. Emotionally our focus is on Dean, we’re going along with his journey of deciding whether he should move on or become a ghost, but John’s actions are in the open. His death isn’t a surprise, and it has a massive impact on the protagonists for the rest of the season. It’s a big part of the buildup to 2x21/2x22 and Dean’s crossroads deal to bring back Sam. There’s also the “you may need to kill Sam” thread, but that doesn’t really count functionally as a death. Or “Sam sees Dean die in a vision and he gains new superpowers.”

The season ends with Sam’s first real death, which lasts into the next episode. The possibility of Sam dying is very present in 2x21: the episode *opens* with a massacre (I told you it was a thing) when the Roadhouse burns down. Ash (and potentially Ellen and Jo) die in the fire. The other Special Children spend the whole episode being picked off one by one. There are other episodes throughout the season that lay the groundwork for Dean to drive down to the crossroads, that Sam is in danger as one of Azazel’s Special Children. The death itself is shocking, because in the episode you think Sam’s won and gotten free and that hope is ripped away from you at the last second, but it’s not unsupported by the structure of either the episode or the season. This is where the writers were going the entire season. And the death matters and has a function, we see Dean grieving and it drives the entire plot of s3 for both of them.

Season three is Dean’s turn - we *know* in advance that the stakes for the season is Dean dying and going to hell, the question is if they can avoid it. 3x11 (Mystery Spot) with Dean dying repeatedly and being brought back ties into this theme (and to Sam’s theme of having to survive his brother’s death), and most of the season deals with the characters coming to terms with and trying to avoid the death. We also have elements like Bela’s death, or Ruby’s predictions that add to the specter of “this may not be survivable”. It’s not a surprise when it happens, but it hurts because the audience had hope that they could pull *something* off to save Dean; because you watched the effort and you’ve gone on the emotional journey with Dean of being scared, and with Sam where he’s faced with the possibility of having failed, and looking at what he’s willing to sacrifice and give up (his humanity) to bring Dean back.

This death is once again over inside of an episode - 4x01 opens with Dean being alive again, but it still *matters* - what Dean went through in hell, the journey that Sam went through alive on his own, are big parts of the season. Lilith wants Sam’s head throughout the season so avoiding death is a motivation factor, but the only other “major” deaths this season are Castiel, Pamela, and Ruby in 4x22; Ruby is revealed to be the antagonist so there’s no surprise, Pamela died in an episode full of repears - thematic, not really a surprise, and functionally she gives the audience reason to question Sam’s powers and whether he’s still good. Cas’ death isn’t confirmed until 5x01 and he’s resurrected that episode, but the concept of Archangels smiting to protect a prophet was introduced a few episodes prior - it’s not a surprise. Functionally, it introduces a question for s5 - who resurrected Cas? Why? Was it God?

S5 brings back Ellen and Jo and then kills them off. They get one episode (5x02) in the season before the episode where they die, and that episode (5x10) is filled with reapers and big flashing “there are consequences if we fail” moments like the photograph at Bobby’s. The deaths have an impact because the audience is set up for it - we’re told the stakes, we’re reminded how much Ellen and Jo matter to the protagonists, we’re given time to understand that Jo is hurt and see an attempt made to find another way; and their deaths are a choice that the protagonists have to live with. This is… thematic to the season. 

Dean watches himself die in 5x04 after having failed to kill the devil (the hero can lose), Sam and Dean deal with the specter of their parents lives and deaths in 5x13 (also Sam dies temporarily. And Anna comes back to die.) Adam is brought back and “dies” via angel possession (which functionally adds to the sense of helplessness), Gabriel dies (furthers the plot, his sacrifice lets them escape and he also hands over the knowledge of the Horsemen’s Rings being the key to the Cage.)

Both Sam and Dean “die” in 5x16 but the visit to the afterlife is the theme of the episode, and it’s pretty well established that they have plot armor - if they die, the archangels will bring them back because the apocalypse is more important. The stakes (which 5x10 helps to set up) are about having to watch everyone they care about die around them. How much pain can these characters take before they break? How much can they stomach to sacrifice? The answer ends up including Sam, Castiel, and Bobby, though all three are returned to life by the end of Swan Song.

We do follow Dean (who does not know Sam is back) for a montage at the beginning of s6 that really… does not show how much he’s been losing his mind over grieving Sam. That understanding comes later in the season. Season 6 also introduces Dean killing himself to go have a chat with a reaper, which I believe qualifies as a downgrade from s4’s astral projection, but is in line with s2 - dying is no longer as big of a deal as it used to be for the protagonists. The next death (not counting Rufus or Samuel or Crowley faking his own death, or Lisa and Ben getting memory wiped, or Balthazar which sets Cas firmly as the antagonist) is Cas in 7x02.

This death is odd. First, it’s an odd placement in the structure of the season. Normally… characters die at the midseason finales (.09/.10 - Ellen and Jo, Bobby, Kaia, Kevin, Billie, Jack, Rowena) or they die at the Dark Night of the Soul (four-ish episodes before the end of the season up to the penultimate episode, which usually covers the massacre - Ash, Eileen, Mary, Sam, Metatron, Alicia Banes, Charlie, Rowena, Benny, Balthazar, Billie, Cas, secondary antagonists like Abaddon) or they die in the finale (Crowley, Cas, Dean, Jack, most primary antagonists). 

Second, functionality - the only other comparable death is John (2x01), which set up the emotional stakes. This sets up the mytharc stakes and the emotional impact gets glossed over for a few episodes. But the build up is weird - we’re faced with the prospect of the protagonists needing to kill Cas as the antagonist, but he wins the initial confrontation. He has to repent of his choices, basically, and then we get a fake-out where it looks like he’s died before he comes back to life only to lose control to the Leviathans. 

Third, Cas was being written *out*, and the 7x02 death has almost no impact on Sam and Dean until the showrunners change out (between 7.09 and 7.12). As an audience, having Cas be gone has an impact because *we* care about the character, and because there’s brief moments in 7x01/7x02 where we watch Sam react to the betrayal, and we watch Dean react to Cas facing the portal and then the aftermath of walking into the reservoir. But there’s no real follow through. Sam doesn’t mourn, Dean doesn’t mourn, they move on with their lives. Cas did something dumb and he died and we’re supposed to let go… which doesn’t fit what the character meant to the protagonists and the plot. You let go of antagonists dying (and Cas was meant to be the villain of s6), but for all that the writers tried to make him the bad guy he was still their friend. And once the showrunners switch somewhere mid season, Dean starts having nightmares about Cas walking into the reservoir. The emotional impact is allowed to happen once the writers know they’re bringing Cas back.

S7 also kills off Bobby, which gets a whole two episodes dedicated to it. The audience is aware of the stakes in 7.09, it’s made quite clear that the protagonists are heading into the dragon’s den and they’re not prepared for this yet. They make a choice and they suffer consequences, and one of them is allowed to die, which functionally ups the stakes and provides impetus of revenge to complete the Quest. Bobby’s death continues to have an impact on the rest of the season (despite the fact that he comes back as a ghost.) 

Also Frank dies, which is more of the continued theme of “stripping away everything the characters care about and every support system they have” than anything… functional… it’s a shock death in a season of deaths that are mainly about showing the protagonists suffering and reacting to losing everything.

Technically Sam believes that Dean and Cas both die in 7x23 and that does have an impact on s8, but it’s… the audience knows they aren’t dead so we don’t really end up mourning with Sam. We don’t see the impact on him until after the fact.

Season 8 sets up and then avoids a death for Sam (the setup to the trials has all the usual visual cues for “this character is ill and dying”), kills a bunch of secondary characters in the return of the massacre (8x22), introduces a grandfather to kill him off (which sets up the fact that the new villain (Abaddon) is dangerous), and kills Meg in 8x17 and Benny in 8x19. Benny’s death is a bit of a… you see him in the afterlife so it doesn’t feel like a death, just like a “he moved to another plane of existence.” It’s also framed as “I didn’t belong there” - he’s returning to where he does belong, so don’t be sad, let him go. Meg’s death is the tail end of a quick redemption (because you’ve forgotten the first six seasons by now and she can be a good guy) arc - she’s brought back in 7x17 as a quick ally, vanishes for months again, and returns in time to have a meaningful conversation with Sam to validate how he felt about Amelia and then die. Both are part of building the stakes up for the finale - Crowley is a threat, and they’re bleeding allies and losing people they’ve saved because of the course of action they’re on.

S9 sets Dean’s death up… pretty obviously, with visual cues that start in the first episode and strongly call back to s3, the last time Dean was headed to hell. The fight and Dean’s death in 9x23 are pretty heavily foreshadowed - he’s clearly struggling with the effects of the Mark for episodes, the “main” season antagonist (Abaddon) is killed off at the Dark Night of the Soul (9x21) which means as an audience we’re supposed to be looking at what the Mark is doing to Dean, and then he’s physically ill (throwing up blood) in the episode where he dies. You see this one coming, or if you didn’t put the pieces together you can see the clues going back. Functionally, this is consequences of a choice (several choices) and setting up the next season. We watch the impact on Sam, from seeing his face when Dean is stabbed to Dean going limp in his arms. We watch Sam go to summon Crowley, we see Cas’ face when Metatron reveals he’s killed Dean - this has a massive impact, and will continue to do so in the space between the seasons. He’s also not entirely dead.

(Honorary mention and press F for Cas’ quick death in 9x03 and Charlie in 9x04. They help maintain the stakes in the episodes they’re present in, and also in a way serve as build-up and fake-outs for Kevin’s death - you care about these two and they survived their brush with death, but the third one won’t).

The other big s9 death is Kevin. This one isn’t heavily lampshaded in advance - the focus of the episode is on Gadreel’s identity and Metatron’s machinations, and the writers direct the sense of “threat” towards Sam. The writers give Kevin more screen time in a way that lets the audience connect emotionally to him (he’s worried about Dean), and the line “I always trust you, and I always end up screwed” serves as a retrospective warning for the audience. Functionally, this drives Dean into the Mark of Cain arc. While he does reappear in 9x14 as a ghost, he’s not wrong that the Winchesters’ reaction to his death is pretty inwardly-focused (self recrimination).

Season 10 for Dean has a lowgrade suicide thread - death seems to be the only solution to the Mark, and he ends up summoning Death in the finale to see if that can be achieved. 10x19 plays directly into this, and distressingly enough into a suicide for Sam as well - Dean is faced with killing himself because it’s peaceful, and Sam is faced with killing himself for the cause. Self sacrifice is the name of the game. The question of whether Dean will kill Sam in the finale is a genuine one - he beat the shit out of Cas and threatened to kill him, he’s stopped caring about casualties, he’s *struggling* to hold on to his humanity. Will he succumb and follow through with “living Cain’s life in reverse”, and kill Sam? The answer is no, but someone still dies (Death, ironically).

The big sin of s10 though is Charlie. We get a warning in 10x18 - she wakes up with a Merry Christmas (a callback to her temporary death in 9x04) and post-its on her face (a callback to Kevin’s death). But there’s no real structural warning to it, and no… massive, longterm emotional impact from it. There’s one warning from Rowena as witch-oracle-who-knows-too-much, “the winchesters will be your downfall.” It directly leads Dean to go stabbing everyone in 10x22, and the fight with Cas, but it’s mainly a shock death with low narrative purpose. It doesn’t up the stakes, it doesn’t drive things forward, it’s just a death. There’s no grieving from Dean or Sam, outside of the pyre in the next episode - we go right back to the plot of Dean vs the Mark and Sam trying to Save Dean regardless of the consequences, and then into The Darkness. 

S11 and Billie *attempts* to reintroduce the concept of character death as a big stake - the Empty is dangled over their heads as a Game Over. And honestly… if they’d done it differently it could have been a nice thread, but the main (only) payoff is in 11x17 (Red Meat, which is also the pacing point for Dark Night of the Soul) where Sam “dies” and Dean temporarily kills himself to try and fix that. The deaths have an impact inside the structure of the episode, but outside of it… they contribute to the sense of vague existential despair of the season, but it’s not a solid thread that can be tied to multiple episodes. The writers don’t return to the sense of “we could die at any moment”, or truly give the characters a moment to face the concept of living without one another, except vaguely in 11x22 and 11x23. Sam decides to take the Mark, and there’s the briefest moment of Dean coming to terms with that, and Dean decides to become a bomb - and there’s a goodbye scene and a brief thread into s12 of Sam and Cas thinking Dean is dead. But it’s not clear, you have to dig back into the text to link them together.

That thread and threat is then removed in s12 when Cas kills Billie (shortly after Sam and Dean die as a jailbreak method - death means nothing at this point, though the end of the season… yeah…)

And then there’s the s12 massacre.

Rewinding - 12x10 and 12x12 threaten Castiel with death, 12x19 adds a sense of threat (Dagon nearly killed him) and unease (is Castiel being brainwashed by the son of Lucifer?) Crowley starts making dumb choices with Lucifer starting in 12x12, and 12x13 wraps up one of the main remaining threads of Crowley and Rowena’s emotional arc - Gavin and Oskar. Eileen is reintroduced in 12x17, and Mick Davies dies (which is… pretty evidently where the episode was going based on visual framing and the fact that Mick suddenly got a backstory). Mary’s link to the Brits is painted as suspicious. Time for the dominoes - 12x19, is Cas okay? and the death of Dagon (our suspected minor Big Bad) leads into 12x20 and bringing back the Banes Twins. Their mother dies, Alicia dies, and Max makes a demon deal to bring back his sister. The next episode opens with Eileen being fridged and Mary losing her mind. We close with a threat to Sam and Dean’s lives, Mary at risk of needing to be killed, and Crowley “dies”. 12x22 wraps up most of those plot threads. The next episode kills Rowena, Crowley, and Castiel, and sends Mary into another world.

It was a lot at the time, and it still is a lot when breaking it down. Castiel’s death was pretty well foreshadowed - most meta writers I knew at the time had Cas pegged to die in the finale, once we hit about 12x19. Rowena and Eileen were complete surprises, and honestly… entirely shock factor. Eileen serves as a basic fridge, Sam cries a bit and thinks about missed opportunities, and Rowena’s death is tactical - removing an ally from the heroes at a crucial point. It does up the stakes but only marginally as we already knew Rowena wasn’t strong enough to take Lucifer out on her own. Crowley… it was evident at the time that the writers didn’t want to do anything with the character, given the same basic scene kept happening in episode after episode, but the fact that he survived Lucifer’s takeover… it was a bit of a fake-out, you ended up thinking that Crowley was going to join the Winchester side for good and abandon Hell. That was reinforced by his speech in the Bunker, “I hate my job.” And then he killed himself for a spell that didn’t work.

It was, and is, cheap writing. There were potential narrative threads with Sam and with Dean that had been dropped, there were implications with the Brits that were also dropped when the Brits were dropped, and functionally… it bought the characters no time at all, because Castiel stepped forward immediately to let Sam and Dean escape.

Castiel’s death does make use of the same basic structure and mechanics as Sam’s death in 2x21 - there is a threat to the character all episode, built up all season, they escape death (visibly) and then are stabbed in the back at the last second by an enemy the audience had dismissed. We watch the impact of this (and Mary’s loss, and potentially Crowley though that’s… it’s implied once) over the start of s13, so it feels like a real death.

Dean kills himself temporarily, again, in 13x05, and has one of his talks with Death about how he’s not allowed to die because there’s work to do. 13x17 threatens him with possession, 13x18 gives him a dangerous wound, 13x19 has a “see you soon” from Billie, and 13x20 has “I don’t care if I die” on top of reckless behavior in the fight with Loki and sons. These are all red flags for the audience that Dean’s at risk, which turn out to be half red herring and half buildup to say yes to Michael. They really read as imminent physical harm/suicide though. The visits over to the Apocalypse world (a war zone), the warnings from Billie (don’t knock over the house of cards), and Kaia’s “death” being a consequence for traveling between worlds sets up the stakes pretty clearly by the time 13x21 comes around.

There’s not really a season long “warning warning Sam is in danger” thread. We’re looking at Dean, and Mary and Jack; Cas feels safe because they just killed him off and resurrected him. But 13x21 is a) the Dark Night Of the Soul (18, 19, and 20 have all been very intense emotionally but nobody died (okay Asmodeus and Loki died) so we’re due), and b) structured with a sense of “someone is going to die” - we open with Sam gasping awake from a dream, which is… visually there’s no reason to do that if you’re not going to kill him. The characters run into a threat, get a “shortcut” under a mountain, and then the way out is shut - it was all a big “this is the Lord of the Rings, that’s Moria, someone’s gonna bite it like Gandalf did” moment for portions of the audience. And we were right - Sam gets his throat torn out. It doesn’t last, but it’s allowed to play out as if it’s going to - the death has weight to it, and emotional impact on Dean and Cas and Mary. The resurrection isn’t without consequence or function; Lucifer gets his introduction to Jack as “not the worst guy, see?”

(Personally, there’s some pacing issues with the episode because of how much they had to fit into it and a bit of a logic gap with just leaving Sam’s body. They have an angel and those are just vampires… anyways.)

S14 sets Jack up to die pretty early. He’s feeling weak from episode one, and coughing up blood by episode 3. Dying in 14x07 and dealing with the consequence in 14x08 was pretty predictable, though the timing is odd given the following episode is the midseason finale. However the sense of “something is wrong” continues in a fairly clear arc up to 14x20 - there’s not really any question about Jack being at risk, the question is if Dean (or Sam and Cas, but really Dean) will do something about his behavior and “going darkside”. 

14x08 also sets up a Doom of Damocles for Cas, in the form of his deal with the Empty. Obviously that doesn’t pay out until 15x18, but the question is there for the audience, even back when we were heading into the s14 finale, will Sam and Dean find out about the deal and will Cas be taken away?

The stakes for Sam and Dean are both set pretty firmly in “being the one to survive” (Bille giving Dean the books, Sam and 14x15 where he’s… literally coping with surviving the loss of all the AU hunters at Michael’s hands), which ties into…

The big death is Mary (again, the Dark Night of the Soul slash massacre point in the storyline). This was actually… pretty clearly foreshadowed. The biggest story thread for her with Sam and Dean was tied up back in s12 (will they accept me back into their lives, what if Sam hates me?); 13 sends her off on a quest with Jack, and she’s shuffled off again in 14 to spend time with AU Bobby once Dean is rescued from Michael. Dean has a dinner with her and a “genuine family moment” about how much it means to have her back alive in 14x11, and then Lebanon happens. Mary gets to reunite with John and that’s the last unanswered emotional thread that was left open for her as a character. It *feels* like her storyline is all wrapped up, and she doesn’t reappear until the episode where she dies so… that’s true. Her death gets a full episode of Jack trying to undo it and Sam and Dean reacting, and then two episodes of mourning and consequences, which continue vaguely through to s15. The conversation with Chuck, where he offers Mary back in return for Dean killing Jack, puts the final nail in her coffin. For the first time, the prospect of resurrection isn’t worth the cost, and the fact that the dead loved one wouldn’t want to be brought back matters.

And then Jack dies, again. Even though the characters make the right choice. Functionally, this is a bit of “kicking the dog” in terms of setting Chuck’s villainy levels. It shows you how bad Chuck is, how petty and how powerful. No matter what, the protagonists are going to have to survive and endure loss, because that’s the game the villain is playing.

The opening of s15 technically takes three episodes to get through; Ketch dies (which… was a bit random, and felt more like authors cleaning house than anything important. Ketch vanished after 14x09, so his death being framed as a “I will die to protect my friends” is odd. And it ends up falling very flat when the protagonists barely seem to notice, and definitely don’t care. It’s function is to direct a brand new antagonist at a brand new “ally”, which really doesn’t do anything. Cas already had figured out something was wrong with Belphegor). And then Rowena - she’s had her own Doom of Damocles since 13x19, that Sam will be the one to kill her, but she’s done a lot to make herself an ally and a friend in the meantime. Visually, she’s marked for death (pink dress… really obvious death sign) as soon as they head into the graveyard. Her death does serve to seal off hell, and Sam does spend time with the emotional impact of her loss (though it gets tied into Eileen’s return, and Rowena returns… sort of.) She gets a heroic sacrifice, and the protagonists are confronted with the conncept of living on afterwards, surviving. Her final appearance in Hell comes with the message to live without regrets, because you can’t fix things when you’re dead.

The narrative appears to be trying to make death permanent and meaningful again, while also bringing everyone back from the dead. Gee.

While her death at Sam’s hands was well established as part of her arc, overall… this left some of her plot threads unaddressed. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing from a writing perspective, sometimes there’s more poignancy in a character death if you leave things unaccomplished for them. If it feels like there story isn’t done when they die, there’s more to grieve (for the audience and the character), and it’s also harder for the audience to predict that a death is coming. But… that’s not how Supernatural normally writes deaths. See all of the above, if they don’t deliberately wrap up emotional threads right before a death… there weren’t really threads left to the character. And if there are threads left, they’re probably coming back.

Chuck’s conversation with Becky in 15x04 does set up the stakes, as he implies the story will absolutely end with the Winchesters dying, but… it kind of provides them with plot armor at the same time? The knowledge that Chuck has an ending planned makes it difficult for the audience to believe that any of the MoTW are truly a threat. We’ve been invited to engage with the structure of the story - there’s not going to be a death for Sam or Dean until Chuck kills them, or they kill one another. It’s their own version of Rowena’s death book - by this or by none shall ye perish.

A brief moment of silence for Castiel being “mostly dead” in 15x08, to remind the audience of his Doom and to firmly shoot any hope that the Empty and Billie working together would result in Cas’ deal being mitigated.

Sam gets visions for several episodes leading up to the midseason break of himself dying, or of Dean dying - we’re back on the Cain vs Abel imagery, which is then followed up by 15x09 and Chuck’s vision of a world where they win (Cas in the Mal’ek box as another sacrifice, Sam and Dean dying as vampires because they’re heroes who don’t know when to stop, the whole world overrun because there’s consequences). Technically Sam is “dying” for one of these interim episodes bc of the wound from Chuck in his shoulder, but it’s… not really a valid stake in the episode, given how it’s paced and filmed. 

15x12 brings in the possibility of killing Chuck… and shortly after that (15x15) we learn that means Jack will die. Again. Given Cas’ reaction to that knowledge, the specter is once again surviving someone else’s death and the impact that death will have.

And then we hit the Dark Night of the Soul - 15x17 and 18. Amara surrenders out of despair, Dean threatens to kill Sam and then backs down, Jack explodes (temporary death, literally a plot point). 18 is another massacre - Charlie’s girlfriend Stevie dies, Eileen dies offscreen, Donna dies, all the au hunters, the entire world… and Cas and Billie are taken by the Empty. Billie had some small markers of being “off” since 15x12, though Sam pointed back to 14x10 as “odd”, and her death gets a typical antagonist treatment (they’re dead and we don’t care). Cas has a full season of Doom building up to this episode, and multiple points that reinforced that this is where the story was going - both that he would go to the Empty, and that there was a relationship thread with Dean that could be/needed to be addressed.

Within the episode, and the scene, the sacrifice is given enough breathing space that the audience can feel the appropriate emotions (though… given the confession on top, there’s also elation/massive confusion/I suppose for some shippers horror, which compounds it. That scene packs a *lot* of emotion into a small space). But there isn’t follow-through into 19 or 20. We see Dean falling apart in silence, and then… one mention in the next episode, and another in the finale. Dean’s drinking cannot be attributed to Cas’ loss, nothing can be. Nothing happens.

I know the fandom has gone into depth on this, but this is still just a jaw-dropping choice from a writing perspective. If you’re still reading this, you’re 5k+ into the non-comprehesive list of deaths of Supernatural; Charlie’s death and Kevin’s death have a longer lasting impact onscreen than Cas’ death here. This is comparable to s7 and Cas’ death there, as the villain and a deliberate write-out (seriously, that was deliberate shit from the showrunner against the character). Crowley got more mentions after his death than Cas did, and he was an antagonistic ally who, again, vanished because of beef with the writer’s room. Cas’ deaths in s4, and s9, and s13, and even his half-death in 15x08 have so much more emotional impact onscreen for Sam and Dean than this does.

The logical conclusion, given the parallels in 18 between Charlie and Stevie, Sam and Eileen, and Dean and Cas was that Cas (and Eileen) vanishing was too big of an emotional thread to pull just yet. “If I go there I’m going to lose it.” (And please… I know if you don’t ship Destiel you’re probably rolling your eyes, but a) the text did the parallel to other couples, and b) even if Dean didn’t reciprocate romantically, Cas is still his best friend. That’s from Dean, on more than one occasion, in those words. The season spent so much time breaking down and then rebuilding their communication and relationship, so… even if Dean wasn’t in love with Cas 100% he loved Cas. Cas *matters*, and he matters to Sam too as a friend and as family, and Sam gets… a frowny face during pie, and a “I miss them too but we have to keep going”.) Not pulling the thread of a massive loss to avoid a mental breakdown is a great explanation for *one* episode of seemingly zero impact - provided there is not a large passage of time. The Winchesters are great at repression.

If a death is going to mean something, and if it’s going to stick, the aftermath and reaction by the characters needs to play out into the story. If Sam doesn’t react, and Dean doesn’t react, and Jack doesn’t react, the audience has no reason to feel anything other than shock, and what grief there is inherent to seeing a character die. Which isn’t much on this damn show anymore - we’ve been traumatized to hell and back already, and we’re inherently skeptical of deaths when it comes to the main three. Billie’s threats to make death meaningful again, Chuck’s threats that they’re going to die, none of it actually seeped into the writing room in how they treated writing stakes and the feeling of threat in the episodes they wrote. The writers could have started writing Sam and Dean with actual stakes, and feeling vulnerable, at any point. They didn’t pull that into the text the way they needed to in order to combat the audience belief in plot armor. Either Cas didn’t matter at all (*fans out the pages of s15 scripts* no) or the logical conclusion for the audience is… don’t believe that’s the end of the character.

This is really basic writing shit.

On top of that is the fact that… the entire world died. Literally. Sam, Dean, Jack, and Michael are the only entities left on the planet. (Potentially other angels, but dubious). In order to win against the bad guy, everyone who was killed needs to be brought back to life. Charlie, Donna, Eileen, Stevie, the kids at the park… everyone. And there’s no reason to not include Cas in that, when the next episode Chuck randomly grabs Lucifer out of the Empty and invalidates the entire concept of “God can’t resurrect angels from the Empty.”

Again, the writers could (sloppily) handwave one episode of not dealing with Cas’ death. Leaving him dead is a deliberate choice, and there’s really no way to look at that choice without coming to the conclusion that the writers didn’t want to deal with the confession and the aftermath.

To which my answer is, either grow some balls or you should never have gone there in the first place. The solution to writing yourself into a corner isn’t actually to pretend it didn’t happen.

And then there’s the finale.

*distant screaming*

There’s no solid foreshadowing for Dean’s death. The episode opening is… dreary, I’m sorry there’s no other word for it, Sam and Dean are both living but they’re shown in empty spaces with no interaction and mainly… waiting. There’s none of the usual visual cues (character asleep and jolts awake (Kevin, Charlie, Sam), character lying with their eyes closed, something that mirrors their final death pose (Dean), clothing warning flags (Jess, Mary, Rowena, most victims of the week)…) that tell the audience to expect a death. Dean has heart symbolism that goes back to 1x12 and carries through to 15x18, but that’s… not really being impaled with a knife. It is his first time getting stabbed in the back, which I suppose fills in the tfw bingo card (Sam 2x21, Cas 12x23, Dean 15x20). And there’s been nothing in the season suggesting Dean should be dying soon - except for Chuck’s story, which is supposed to have lost its power.

The rebar is glaringly obvious during the fight. Once the death is imminent it’s obvious someone is going to die, but it’s sloppy in setup and execution - better suited to a Final Destination movie (where fate is pulling the strings towards a death you avoided, gee why does everything I come up with MAKE ME THINK CHUCK WON).

There are genuine emotions watching Dean’s death - because the audience loves the character, because the characters love each other, and because the actors put their souls into that scene it is going to have an impact. But it’s a cheap trick, writing wise. There’s no support to it, and there’s no narrative purpose for the death. It isn’t part of the quest (which… heroes die for the quest all the time, it’s the decision to risk their lives that gives their deaths meaning. This? Isn’t that, for all that they’re on a hunt and they’re saving kids, we’ve spent so long in the story focusing on the cosmic heroics that there’s no automatic space for one tiny hunt to feel like it has a world of meaning. They could have given it that meaning, they’ve done it on episodes like 10x14. This was sloppy. They scaled up too big and forgot that they needed to remember how to care about the small moments.) It isn’t upping the narrative stakes - the story is over and done. It doesn’t motivate Sam to any clear action or direction or process - it’s not even that he’s the survivor of the story. Cause he doesn’t… actually… survive.

He continues the same dreary pattern in the Bunker that we opened with - depression and grieving, and then we get a montage and… his life is over, even though that’s what we’re watching unfold. Because it’s paired with Dean’s drive, and the concept of waiting for Sam to arrive in heaven, we’re watching Sam’s death in slow motion, through all the years of his life. Some people were able to watch that sequence and see Sam living a full and happy life, but there were others (me among them) that felt… we were watching Sam die. It was horrifying.

The Weeping Angels on Doctor Who were called kind for killing as they did - feeding and murdering by making their victims live in the past, cut off from the life they were meant to have. That’s what the montage ends up feeling like, to me. Sam isn’t living, because I know his death will be there when the music stops. There’s no space for his story to expand, there’s no potential, it’s a car crash in slow motion and a punishment because he has to live through the entire thing. He lingers.

Yes, Dabb brought the concept of having to be the lone survivor, having to live past loss and grieving and move on, as a recurring thread during his years as a showrunner, but a) it’s way older than Dabb’s years showrunning.

b) neither character actually survived in the end. The forty year time jump closes off Sam’s story as thoroughly as the rebar did Dean’s. 

c) it’s not present enough in the text to justify it as an ending. 

And d) that’s still Chuck’s narrative. S15 does a bit of mind muddling with its focus on Demon!Dean and Lucifer! or boyking!Sam, the “brothers killing each other” story - but that’s not the only thing Supernatural has been about, and the entire show is one of Chuck’s stories. 

The story keeps pushing them to fight, and they choose each other; but they also keep losing one another and having to survive that. Which mirrors the reality of Chuck’s fight with Amara - the story is two siblings who fight, but the reality is one sibling survives and the other does not. Sometimes Sam and Dean have ways around it, crossroads deals and acts of God, but they’ve had to live with it in the past. Dean spent months with Lisa, Sam spent months with Amelia and Ruby and searching for Dean when it looked like his body had been stolen by a demon. Sam lived through Dean being taken by Michael, being told “there is no more Dean”.

They’ve survived before. It isn’t new. It isn’t a deep, unexplored part of the story - and what happens to Sam isn’t exploring it anyways.

Death is woven deeply into the weft of the tapestry of Supernatural. It’s there from the beginning, and it’s there in the end, and… to end in blood is neither subverting the story, nor is it truly fulfilling it. It’s a continuation of the pattern and the cycle but… it’s been stripped of the meaning it should have had. The finale is a shock death, in the end, for all that it circles back around to a brother relationship and how much the characters mean to one another. It has no true function, and it doesn’t fit either the genre of horror that the show used to be, or the heroic narrative that Dabb tried to move towards.

We’re left to ask “what the fuck was the point”, and… there isn’t a good answer to be found in the text. Other than to reassure one another that life is worth living, and we’re better together. There is value to you just in that you are alive, and this is not a game, or a waystop on the path.

Be safe.

**Author's Note:**

> If I could only write fiction at these speeds...
> 
> Edit: I’ve realized twenty minutes after posting that I forgot Missouri in 13.03, who functions as an example of the “killing the mentor” variant of fridging. There’s extra layers of racism in bringing her back just to kill her, which are a lot more painful/infurating than they would have been if Patience had subsequently had a character arc. This is a purer form of Mentor Fridge than Bobby was (psychic powers = Obi Wan/Gandalf/Dumbledore, and Bobby’s death didn’t function as a threshhold the way Missouri’s death does - there’s nothing Sam and Dean can do after his loss that’s new, while Patience enters a new character class and has a new role as pertains the plot. Or would have had *distant mournful hum over Wayward*


End file.
